Project for Sunday Morning Smoking 5lbs of Mallard Breasts!!!!!

[Michelle K linnane]

Saturday night went over a friends house for fresh mallard, Teal, Wooduck cooked out on the grill. Duck season opened in NY and the boys did well. I am not sure what Craig used as marinade but he coooked on the grill and it was excellent. I had Teal (my Favorite) and Mallard. I would compare the teal with prime rib. I like my duck rare. Some good bourbon completed the night very good dinner. We talked about smoking and that lead to what I am doing on Sunday morning. I never know enought to keep my mouth shut.

I have a hunt this morning so I will need to do this stuff in between. I run a pheasant preserve and boarding kennel in my spare time and still work a normal job. As I left last night I was given a 5LB bag of Mallard breasts shot that day to prepare for Sunday night dinner.

The brine consisted of what I had in the house I was not going shopping this morning. Took some tropicana orange juice and water placed in pan and turned on heat.
Put in about what I have here I never measure anything
A little less than a cup of kosher salt
some tyme maybe teaspoon
cut up a lemmon and lime in slices
Black pepper about teaspoon
2/3 cup of brown sugar
A couple of squirts of maple syurp
Boil on stove to disolve sugar and salt. Took off stove and threw the 5lbs of mallard breasts in to soak for a brine.

I will Cold smoke it today and then take back over to Craig to cook on grill tonight. While I am at I will cold smoke some cheese as I have the smoker on it might as well be full. I used my Bradley smoker I have the cold smoke adapter for cheese and fish. I will smoke it with hickory I like a strong smoke flavor.

I decided to cold smoke it as I did not want to over cook the duck breasts (duck and goose do not taste good if they are over cooked, they must be cooked rare to be good). Most people over cook game. I made the brine at 8:00am this morning as I needed soaking time. I will cook some wild rice and baked beans and take over with the duck tonight for supper. The breast are in the brine now! Well I need to get going here set up smoker and catch the pheasants for the hunt this morning. At least I do not have to guide just set the pheasants out so I will be free the rest of day. I hope the
boys do well again this morning Duck hunting more MEAT!!!!

If I had more time I butcher a couple of Pheasants to throw in the brine and smoke them too. But need to get going will let you guys know how it came out and will take a couple of pictures.

 

[dave1949]

Sounds good!

On a visit to Montreal, I ordered duck breast in a decent restaurant. The waiter asked how well done I wanted it. Not knowing, I said tell the chef to cook it the way he thinks it ought be. It was served on the rare side and very tasty.

 

[Michelle K linnane]

Well guys here is my smoker

I have my cold smoke adapter on the smoker when I opened the door to take a picture. You can see the cheese.

I had one pheasant I had cleaned was in the freezer and I threw that in with the duck. The will cold smoke the meat for about a
an hours. I am using Hickory and Mesquite pucks. So here is the 5lbs of Mallard breasts soaking.

 

[Sysop]

Awesome! Last two summers I've taken down a couple old non-producing apple trees that were in bad shape. Have been using the applewood to smoke various things. Everyone goes nuts over it. Grapevines make an excellent smoke flavor too.